About artificial backgrounds: To do a
really good job with an artificial background, the iris should be selected and
made into a separate layer. (I use Photoshop). At that point, one
can use anything for a background. An example from one of my ads
is attached. It is a somewhat tedious process, taking about an hour to
carefully trace the outlines of the flower. I've found that shortcut
selection methods don't meet the standards needed for publication. I
usually only do this when the original background is unsatisfactory- something
distracting or unattractive. I think
Brock's ideas about creating a good background with the camera
are excellent.

My theory about the
truth of photos: By stopping a subject in time, a photo gives a
different impression than we get with our continuous perception. A
good example is: when taking a number of photos of a beautiful woman,
there will always be a few in which she does not look at all beautiful.
But it is a true image. The difference is that when we see her "live", we
get an overall impression in which those less flattering angles become
unimportant. And yes, when we select a photo of an iris to share, we
should check to be sure it matches our overall impression of the
flower.

Lowell Baumunk

Colorado

It's way above my ability, I'm afraid. But I'll ask anyway. Does that
background have to be black? Would the program substitute other colors in lieu
of black? I'm asking because when looking at the colors on my monitor after
taking a photo it's more important to me that they display accurately. More
important than being pretty. The perception of what you see can be altered by
the background color. So using green, gray, white or other colors in addition to
black could shift what the eye perceives to a more accurate representation of
what you actually see using the naked eye. Photos are strange things. They can
fail miserably for catching some things; or they can enhance details out of
proportion to what the blooms really show. I wouldn't say they lie exactly, but
the truth is certainly altered sometimes.